Partners

Alfredo Piacentini

Managing Partner, Member of the Board, Member of the Executive Committee, Member of the Strategy and Investment Committees

Alfredo Piacentini worked for 9 years at Lombard Odier in Geneva and London, as a financial analyst then as a fund manager, before co-founding Banque SYZ in 1995. As a partner and General Manager of the Group, he was in charge of private banking, centralized management and investment funds business. He was Chairman of Banca Albertini Syz in Milan until 2016 and remains a board member.
He holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.

Rodolfo De Benedetti

Partner, Member of the Board, Head of Fund Managers and Product Strategy, member of the Executive Committee, member of the Strategy Committee

Rodolfo De Benedetti has worked for Lombard Odier and Shearson Lehman Brothers in the United States. Furthermore, he is Chairman of the Board of Directors and majority co-shareholder of the Italian group CIR, of which he was the CEO for 18 years. He is also Chairman of the Harvard Business School’s European Advisory Board and member of the European Round Table of Industrialists.

He holds a Master’s degree in Political Economy and a master’s degree in Law from the University of Geneva.

Isabella Pedrazzini

Partner, Head of Private Clients, member of the Executive Committee, member of the Strategy Committee

Isabella Pedrazzini started her career in finance in 1986 and has worked for 26 years at private bank Lombard Odier in Geneva. As an Executive Vice President, she assumed several positions in portfolio management and was in charge of a significant private clientele. In 2013, together with Gabriel Gumener, she founded Dalia Capital, which became DECALIA Asset Management in 2014.
Isabella Pedrazzini gained a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva and a postgraduate diploma in Public Administration from Institut de Hautes Etudes en Administration Publique, Lausanne.

Xavier Guillon

Partner, Head of Business Development & DECALIA Funds, member of the Executive Committee

Xavier Guillon worked for 14 years at US private bank Brown Brothers Harriman, in London & New York, heading Institutional Sales. He then joined Banque SYZ in 2007, where he held several functions, including CEO of OYSTER Funds and member of SYZ Group’s Executive Committee.
Xavier Guillon holds an MBA in International Marketing & BBA in International Business from Georges Washington University in Washington DC.

Sébastien Demole

Partner, Head of Alternative Advisory, member of the Executive Committee

Sébastien Demole starts his career in 2002 at the Royal Bank of Scotland in London as a junior trader. Two years later, he is sent to Hong Kong to develop their equity derivative trading desk. In 2009, he joins the Parisian hedge fund Boussard & Gavaudan Gestion as a proprietary trader for the multi-strategy fund. Back in Switzerland in 2012, Sébastien Demole opens the PerenInvest Family Office, where he is in charge of investments in various asset classes, such as direct deals in Private Equity.

Sébastien Demole holds a BSc in Economics from QMW, University of London, and an MBA from INSEAD.

Gabriel Gumener

Partner, Head of Compliance and Risk Management, member of the Executive Committee

Gabriel Gumener started working in 1980 at Trade Development Bank. In 1984, he was co-founder and director of Soditic Asset Management (which became licensed securities dealer Atlas Capital). In 2013, after having sold his stake in Atlas Capital, he left the Group and founded Dalia Capital with Isabella Pedrazzini.
He holds a Master’s degree in Commercial and Industrial Sciences from the University of Geneva.

Yves Rochat

Partner, Head of Administration and Finance, member of the Executive Committee

Yves Rochat has more than 30 years’ experience as COO. He worked for Société Générale, Unibank (Suisse), Banca Monte Paschi (Suisse) SA and Banque SYZ & CO since it was established in 1995 until 2013. In 2013, he left Banque SYZ, where he was COO for 17 years, to join DECALIA.
He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from HEC Lausanne.